The Definitive Book for the America 250 Celebration (Click to Order)
Nancy Bradeen Spannaus, author and historian, 1943-2026
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Nancy Bradeen Spannaus of Lovettsville, VA, author and public historian, died on January 16, 2026 at Inova Loudoun Hospital. Nancy had been fighting cancer over a span of eleven years, and was battling a rare and particularly virulent form of the disease for the past two years.
Nancy had been studying U.S. history, with an emphasis on the country’s economic development in general, and Alexander Hamilton in particular, since the 1970s, and in 1977 she co-authored a book of writings on the Political Economy of the American Revolution. In 2017, upon retirement from a career in journalism, she established the blog https://americansystemnow.com, which contains more than 600 articles on the history and principles of the American System of Economics.
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Book Available (Click to Order)
Recent Posts
Reaching for Hamilton at the ‘Sputnik Moment’
Jake Sullivan has authored a very important piece in the Council on Foreign Relations’ magazine Foreign Affairs entitled “How to Reindustrialize America – The Case for a Strategic Investment Fund.” American System Now believes that any significant attempt to resurrect Hamiltonian economics and methods in the U.S. (see the summary...Read More »
Struggle for Justice Portrayed in the New Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum
By John and Rochelle Ascher – Has the struggle for defeating slavery, the battle against racism and for civil rights in the Unted States, been whitewashed in Washington DC? Not at the recently opened Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum – the area directly under the Lincoln Memorial. The impression made on...Read More »
America at 250: Holy War Is Not American
By Michele Steinberg – As the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States drew closer this spring, alarming manifestations of ideas alien to the American System and alien to the Constitution’s guarantee of Freedom of Worship, Speech, Press, and Assembly emerged and grew in frequency. Rallies, marches, social...Read More »
Busting the Myth of the “Abolitionist” British Monarchy
Whenever my late wife Nancy would give a talk on her 2023 book Defeating Slavery, someone in the audience would invariably ask a question such as: “Well, weren’t the British ahead of the United States in abolishing slavery?” or “Weren’t the British more progressive than us when it came to...Read More »
Music and the First July 4 Celebration After the Revolutionary War
On January 20, 1783, the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War and formalizing British recognition of the independence of the United States of America was signed. By April, the Governor of North Carolina, Alexander Martin, informed the State Assembly of the peace agreement. In response, the Assembly instructed the...Read More »
Not the Roman Empire – How the Founding Fathers Conceived the Republic
by Andrew Spannaus – When visiting Washington, D.C., the first thing that stands out is the architecture: the classical buildings and monuments, many of them imitating what one might have seen in Ancient Rome. That is no coincidence: The construction of the Capitol and the White House was heavily influenced...Read More »
From Nancy’s Pen: What, to Americans Today, Is the Fourth of July?
June 19, 2026 – Nancy Bradeen Spannaus’ book From Subject to Citizen can best be seen as blueprint for honoring and celebrating the American System of governance and economy. On this blog, Nancy called it, “The Definitive Book for the America 250 Celebration.” Today, on Juneteenth, and in the countdown...Read More »
A musical offering for the Nation’s 250th: The “Music of the Regiment”
Introduction – This week, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we offer a special treat to our readers: A delightful concert entitled “More Influence than the Oratory of a Cicero,” presented by the early-music ensemble Music of the Regiment, and featuring compositions...Read More »